Teen to Hero Teacher: 'I Don't Want to Shoot You'

A California teacher'sbrave conversation with a 16-year-old gunman who had opened fire on his classroom bullies allowed 28 other students to quickly escape what could have been a massacre.

Science teacher Ryan Heber calmly confronted the teenager after he shot and critically wounded a classmate, whom authorities say had bullied the boy for more than year at Taft Union High School.

"I don't want to shoot you," the teen gunman told Heber, who convinced the teen gunman to drop his weapon, a high power shotgun.

Responding to calls of shots fired, campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields arrived at the classroom and helped Heber talk the boy into giving up the weapon.

"This teacher and this counselor stood there face-to-face not knowing if he was going to shoot them," said Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood. "They probably expected the worst and hoped for the best, but they gave the students a chance to escape."

One student, who police say the shooter had targeted, was shot. He was airlifted to a hospital and remains in critical, but stable condition, Youngblood said. He is expected to undergo surgery today.

Two other students received minor injuries. One suffered hearing loss and another fell over a table while evacuating. Heber received a wound to his head from a stray pellet, police said.

Taft Midway Driller/Doug Keeler/AP Photo

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Police said the teen, whose name has not been made public because he is a minor, began plotting on Wednesday night to kill two students he felt had bullied him.

Authorities believe the suspect found his older brother's gun and brought it into the just before 9 a.m. on Thursday and went to Heber's second-floor classroom where a first period science class with 20 students was taking place.

"He planned the event," Youngblood said. "Certainly he believed that the two people he targeted had bullied him, in his mind. Whether that occurred or not we don't know yet."

The gunman entered the classroom and shot one of his classmates. Heber immediately began trying to talk him into handing over the gun, and evacuating the other students through the classroom's backdoor.

"The heroics of these two people goes without saying. ... They could have just as easily ... tried to get out of the classroom and left students, and they didn't," the sheriff said. "They knew not to let him leave the classroom with that shotgun."

The gunman was found with several rounds of additional ammunition in his pockets.

Within one minute of the shooting, a 911 call was placed and police arrived on the scene. An announcement was made placing the school on lockdown and warning teachers and students that the precautions were "not a drill."

The school had recently announced new safety procedures following last month's deadly shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school in which 20 young children were killed. Six school staffers, including the principal, were killed as they tried to protect the children from gunman Adam Lanza.

The school employs an armed security guard, but he was not on campus Thursday morning.

Youngblood said the student would be charged with attempted murder, but the district attorney would decide if he was to be tried as an adult.

Some 900 students attend Taft Union High School, located in Taft, Calif., a rural community in southern California.

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Bibles used by King, Lincoln to be part of Obama’s second inauguration

Martin Luther King Jr. carried a black leather King James Bible on his journeys as a young pastor starting out in Montgomery, Ala. He turned to this “traveling Bible” for inspiration, his family says, as he fought for freedom and equality.

President Obama will put his hand over King’s well-worn Bible at his public swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 21, the holiday celebrating the birthday of the slain civil rights leader. King’s Bible will be stacked with the burgundy velvet and gilded Bible used by President Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration.

Obama chose the Lincoln Bible for his inauguration in 2009, making him the first president to do so since it was initially used in 1861. President Harry S. Truman also used two Bibles, as did Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon.

The announcement about the Bibles, to be made publicly Thursday, is part of the slow unspooling of inaugural details that fascinates lovers of ceremonial Americana.

Presidential inaugurations have become more filled with rites, and such decisions are especially weighty now at a time when the White House is aware that Americans are struggling to come together.

King’s family said in a statement that he would be “deeply moved” to see Obama use the traveling Bible on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, “and we hope it can be a source of strength for the President as he begins his second term.”

“With the Inauguration less than two weeks away, we join Americans across the country in embracing this opportunity to celebrate how far we have come, honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. through service, and rededicate ourselves to the work ahead,” the statement added.

According to the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which organizes the swearing-in ceremony, King traveled with various books, including this Bible. “It was used for inspiration and preparing sermons and speeches, including during Dr. King’s time as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church” in Montgomery, the committee said in a statement.

Obama and Vice President Biden will be sworn in privately on Sunday, Jan. 20 — the date required by the Constitution. For that first ceremony, Obama will use the family Bible of his wife’s family. According to the inaugural committee, that Bible “was a gift from the First Lady’s father, Fraser Robinson III, to his mother, LaVaughn Delores Robinson, on Mother’s Day in 1958. Mrs. Robinson was the first African-American woman manager of a Moody Bible Institute’s bookstore.” That Bible was the only one Michelle Obama’s grandmother used after that, a committee statement said.

For both the private and then the Monday public ceremonies, Biden will be sworn in with a Bible that has been in his family since 1893: a five-inch-thick volume with a Celtic cross on the cover. He also used it for his swearings-in as a U.S. senator and in 2009 as vice president.

Some aspects of the inaugural ceremony have changed slightly over the decades. Having official prayers offered dates only to the 1930s, historians say. But presidents have used Bibles to be sworn in since George Washington, even though the Constitution does not require it. The Constitution also does not require the phrase “So help me God” at the end, but that has become standard, said Donald Ritchie, the historian of the U.S. Senate.

He also noted that the image of the president’s spouse holding the Bible dates only to Lady Bird Johnson doing so in 1965.

Chief justices of the Supreme Court now traditionally deliver the oath, but Ritchie said any federal official can do so.

Several non-Christian members of Congress have recently used other scriptures, including Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, in 2007. The Minnesota Democrat used a Koran owned by Thomas Jefferson.

Obama veered from tradition in one key aspect of the ceremony: He invited Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights figure Medgar Evers, to deliver the invocation prayer. It will be the first time a woman, and a layperson rather than clergy, has done so.

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"Lincoln", "Life of Pi" lead Oscar nominations

 

LOS ANGELES: Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" earned the most Oscar nominations with 12, ahead of Lee Ang's "Life of Pi," with 11 nods, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Thursday.

Both movies are nominated for the coveted best film prize, along with "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Les Miserables," which each earned eight nominations, and Ben Affleck's political thriller "Argo" with seven.

Beyond best film, "Lincoln" earned nods for best director for Spielberg, best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis for his portrayal of the American president and best supporting actor for Tommy Lee Jones as abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens.

The other movies nominated for best film are "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Zero Dark Thirty," "Amour" and "Django Unchained."

Other nominees for best actor besides Day-Lewis are Hugh Jackman in "Les Miserables," Bradley Cooper in "Silver Linings Playbook," Joaquin Phoenix in "The Master" and Denzel Washington for "Flight."

Best actress nominees are Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty," Jennifer Lawrence for "Silver Linings Playbook," 85-year-old French actress Emmanuelle Riva in "Amour," Naomi Watts in "The Impossible" and nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis for "Beasts of the Southern Wild."

Best picture:
"Amour," "Argo," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Django Unchained," "Les Miserables," "Life of Pi," "Lincoln," "Silver Linings Playbook," "Zero Dark Thirty."

Best director:
Michael Haneke for "Amour," Benh Zeitlin for "Beasts of the Southern Wild," Lee Ang for "Life of Pi," Steven Spielberg for "Lincoln," and David O. Russell for "Silver Linings Playbook."

Best leading actor:
Bradley Cooper for "Silver Linings Playbook," Daniel Day-Lewis for "Lincoln," Hugh Jackman for "Les Miserables," Joaquin Phoenix for "The Master," and Denzel Washington for "Flight."

Best leading actress:
Jessica Chastain for "Zero Dark Thirty," Jennifer Lawrence for "Silver Linings Playbook," Emmanuelle Riva for "Amour," Quvenzhane Wallis for "Beasts of the Southern Wild," and Naomi Watts for "The Impossible."

Best supporting actor:
Alan Arkin for "Argo," Robert De Niro for "Silver Linings Playbook," Philip Seymour Hoffman for "The Master," Tommy Lee Jones for "Lincoln," and Christoph Waltz for "Django Unchained."

Best supporting actress:
Amy Adams for "The Master," Sally Field for "Lincoln," Anne Hathaway for "Les Miserables," Helen Hunt for "The Sessions," and Jacki Weaver for "Silver Linings Playbook."

Best foreign language film:
"Amour" (Austria), "Kon-Tiki" (Norway), "No" (Chile), "A Royal Affair" (Denmark) and "War Witch" (Canada).

Best animated feature:
"Brave," "Frankenweenie," "ParaNorman," "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" and "Wreck-It Ralph."

- AFP/fa

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Teach Pakistan a lesson like 1965: Hazare

RALEGAN-SIDDHI (Maharashtra): Social activist Anna Hazare Thursday demanded that India should "teach Pakistan a lesson" like it did in 1965 for the brutal killing of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops in Jammu and Kashmir.

"What they have done is simply unacceptable. How can they mutilate and take away the head of our soldier? This cannot be tolerated by any person," Hazare told reporters here.

"Pakistan seems to have forgotten the beating it took in the 1965 war with India. Don't they remember how they begged for mercy when Lahore was bombed during that war? But on and off, it keeps raising its head against India. We want a repeat of 1965. Pakistan should be taught a lesson again," Hazare said.

The 75-year-old also expressed his willingness to go to the border and fight enemy soldiers.

Hazare served in the Indian Army for 12 years before he was honourably discharged from service in 1975.

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Embryonic Sharks Freeze to Avoid Detection

Jane J. Lee

Although shark pups are born with all the equipment they'll ever need to defend themselves and hunt down food, developing embryos still stuck in their egg cases are vulnerable to predators. But a new study finds that even these baby sharks can detect a potential predator, and play possum to avoid being eaten.

Every living thing gives off a weak electrical field. Sharks can sense this with a series of pores—called the ampullae of Lorenzini—on their heads and around their eyes, and some species rely on this electrosensory ability to find food buried in the seafloor. (See pictures of electroreceptive fish.)

Two previous studies on the spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) and the clearnose skate (Raja eglanteria)—a relative of sharks—found similar freezing behavior in their young. But new research by shark biologist and doctoral student Ryan Kempster at the University of Western Australia has given scientists a more thorough understanding of this behavior.

It all started because Kempster wanted to build a better shark repellent. Since he needed to know how sharks respond to electrical fields, Kempster decided to use embryos. "It's very hard to test this in the field because you need to get repeated responses," he said. And you can't always get the same shark to cooperate multiple times. "But we could use embryos because they're contained within an egg case."

Cloaking Themselves

So Kempster got his hands on 11 brownbanded bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum) embryos and tested their reactions to the simulated weak electrical field of a predator. (Popular pictures: Bamboo shark swallowed whole—by another shark.)

In a study published today in the journal PLoS One, Kempster and his colleagues report that all of the embryonic bamboo sharks, once they reached later stages of development, reacted to the electrical field by ceasing gill movements (essentially, holding their breath), curling their tails around their bodies, and freezing.

A bamboo shark embryo normally beats its tail to move fresh seawater in and out of its egg case. But that generates odor cues and small water currents that can give away its position. The beating of its gills as it breathes also generates an electrical field that predators can use to find it.

"So it cloaks itself," said neuroecologist Joseph Sisneros, at the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the study. "[The embryo] shuts down any odor cues, water movement, and its own electrical signal."

Sisneros, who conducted the previous clearnose skate work, is delighted to see that this shark species also reacts to external electrical fields and said it would be great to see whether this is something all shark, skate, and ray embryos do.

Marine biologist Stephen Kajiura, at Florida Atlantic University, is curious to know how well the simulated electrical fields compare to the bamboo shark's natural predators—the experimental field was on the higher end of the range normally given off.

"[But] they did a good job with [the study]," Kajiura said. "They certainly did a more thorough study than anyone else has done."

Electrifying Protection?

In addition to the freezing behavior he recorded in the bamboo shark embryos, Kempster found that the shark pups remembered the electrical field signal when it was presented again within 40 minutes and that they wouldn't respond as strongly to subsequent exposures as they did initially.

This is important for developing shark repellents, he said, since some of them use electrical fields to ward off the animals. "So if you were using a shark repellent, you would need to change the current over a 20- to 30-minute period so the shark doesn't get used to that field."

Kempster envisions using electrical fields to not only keep humans safe but to protect sharks as well. Shark populations have been on the decline for decades, due partly to ending up as bycatch, or accidental catches, in the nets and on the longlines of fishers targeting other animals.

A 2006 study estimated that as much as 70 percent of landings, by weight, in the Spanish surface longline fleet were sharks, while a 2007 report found that eight million sharks are hooked each year off the coast of southern Africa. (Read about the global fisheries crisis in National Geographic magazine.)

"If we can produce something effective, it could be used in the fishing industry to reduce shark bycatch," Kempster said. "In [America] at the moment, they're doing quite a lot of work trying to produce electromagnetic fish hooks." The eventual hope is that if these hooks repel the sharks, they won't accidentally end up on longlines.

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Oscar Nominations 2013: Full List

"Lincoln" is leading the way to the 2013 Oscars. This morning, the bio pic about the 16th president picked up 12 Academy Award nominations, including best director for Steven Spielberg and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis.

Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" followed close behind with 11 nominations. "Les Miserables" and "Silver Linings Playbook" tied for third place, with eight nominations each.

The Academy also named its eldest and youngest best actress nominees ever. "Beasts of the Southern Wild" star Quvenzhané Wallis, 9, is up for best actress along with "Amour" lead Emmanuelle Riva, 85.

See who made the cut below, and weigh in on who you want to win with Oscar.com's My Picks, an interactive and social Oscar ballot that allows you to pick who you think will win in each category. You can compete with your Facebook friends when the Academy Awards air on Feb. 24.

FULL COVERAGE: The 85th Annual Academy Awards

Best Picture:

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

"Lincoln"

"Les Miserables"

"Life of Pi"

"Amour"

"Django Unchained"

"Argo"

My Picks: Create an Oscar Ballot and Play With Friends

Best Supporting Actor:

Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"

Robert De Niro, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Alan Arkin, "Argo"

Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"

Best Supporting Actress:

Sally Field, "Lincoln"

Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables"

Jacki Weaver, "Silver Linings Playbook"

David James/Dreamworks/AP

Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"

Amy Adams, "The Master"

Best Director:

David O. Russell, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Ang Lee, "Life of Pi"

Steven Spielberg, "Lincoln"

Michael Haneke, "Amour"

Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Actor:

Daniel Day Lewis, "Lincoln"

Denzel Washington, "Flight"

Hugh Jackman, "Les Miserables"

Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"

Best Actress:

Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"

Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"

Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Original Screenplay:

"Zero Dark Thirty"

"Django Unchained"

"Moonrise Kingdom"

"Amour"

"Flight"

Best Adapted Screenplay:

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Argo"

"Life of Pi"

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Animated Feature:

"Frankenweenie"

"The Pirates! Band of Misfits"

"Wreck-It Ralph"

"Paranorman"

"Brave"

Best Foreign Feature:

"Amour"

"A Royal Affair"

"Kon-Tiki"

"No"

"War Witch"

Best Visual Effects:

"Life of Pi"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

"The Avengers"

"Prometheus"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Cinematography:

"Skyfall"

"Anna Karenina"

"Django Unchained"

"Life of Pi"

"Lincoln"

Best Costume Design:

"Anna Karenina"

"Les Miserables"

"Lincoln"

"Mirror Mirror"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Documentary Feature:

"Searching for Sugar Man"

"How to Survive a Plague"

"The Gatekeepers"

"5 Broken Cameras"

"The Invisible War"

Best Documentary Short:

"Open Heart"

"Inocente"

"Redemption"

"Kings Point"

"Mondays at Racine"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Film Editing:

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Life of Pi"

"Argo"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

"Hitchcock"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

"Les Miserables"

Best Music (Original Score):

"Anna Karenina"

"Argo"

"Life of Pi"

"Lincoln"

"Skyfall"

Best Music (Original Song):

"Before My Time" from "Chasing Ice"

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Malaysian opposition to rally for poll reforms

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's opposition on Wednesday received rare permission to hold a weekend political rally in a historic stadium, ahead of hotly anticipated elections due within months.

Opposition organisers say the gathering on Saturday at the 30,000-seater Stadium Merdeka (Independence Stadium), in the capital Kuala Lumpur, will focus on continued widespread criticism of a voting system seen as skewed in favour of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Senior opposition politician, Hatta Ramli, from the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party said: "Not giving access to the stadium would have looked very bad for the government... They are doing the right thing and now we have a proper venue for the gathering. We want to make people aware of our demands for free and fair elections."

A rally for clean elections in April drew tens of thousands to the streets but degenerated into clashes between demonstrators and police, who were criticised for a response widely seen as heavy-handed.

The ruling coalition has controlled Malaysia since independence in 1957 but political observers say it faces its stiffest test yet in the coming polls against a formidable opposition and amid rising voter impatience with its rule.

Prime Minister Najib Razak must face elections no later than late June, but speculation of early polls is rife.

Najib's ethnic Malay-dominated ruling bloc faces an alliance comprising opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's multi-ethnic party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party and a third party dominated by ethnic Chinese.

Malays make up more than 60 per cent of Malaysia's 28 million people.

The trust that owns the stadium, where independence was declared 56 years ago, said in a statement it would allow Saturday's rally but that crowds must not exceed the venue's capacity.

The opposition often complains of hurdles in gaining permission for rallies, blaming ruling-party meddling, and had said in recent days that the stadium trust appeared to be snubbing its request, before approval came through.

Activists and the opposition say Malaysia's electoral roll is marred with irregularities, and complain that election officials and mainstream media are biased in favour of the ruling coalition.

The government set up a parliamentary panel to examine the complaints but critics said not enough concrete action has been taken.

The last elections in 2008 saw Barisan Nasional's worst showing ever, losing its traditional two-thirds parliamentary majority to the opposition.

- AFP/xq

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Rail fares hiked across the board, opposition demands immediate rollback

NEW DELHI: In a rare decision just a month ahead of the Union budget, railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Wednesday effected an across-the-board hike in fares of all classes from midnight of January 21 to net an additional Rs 6,600 crore a year, the first such increase in a decade.

The proposals will rake in an additional Rs 1200 crore between January 21 and March 31 this year, the minister said announcing the decision and did not rule out a hike in the freight tariff.

Fares of Ordinary Second Class (suburban) trains will go up by 2 paise per km while for non-suburban travel it will be 3 paise.

Travel by Second Class Mail and Express trains will be costlier by 4 paise per km, while it will be 6 paise in Sleeper Class.

Travellers by AC Chair Car and AC Three Tier will have to shell out 10 paise more per km, First Class by 3 paise, AC Two Tier by 6 paise and AC First Class by 10 paise.

The fares for First Class, AC Two Tier and AC First/ Executive Class were already raised by 10 paise per km, 15 and 30 paise respectively in the current year's budget.

Breaking away from the populism of his predecessors, including Lalu Prasad and Mamata Banerjee, Bansal, who was made the railway minister in October last, told a press conference that the decision to hike the fares was "imperative" as lack of revision in the last 10 years has had a "telling effect" on the railway finances.

Dinesh Trivedi, who succeeded his party chief Banerjee, made a bold decision to hike fares in the Budget in February, 2012 to mop up an additional Rs 4000 crore but paid the price when he was made to resign by his party Trinamool Congress which was opposed to it.

Today's decision also covered services like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto type trains. However, it exempted platform tickets from any hike.

Bansal also proposed to do away with the practice of levying development charge on passenger tickets and all the chargeable fares will in future be in multiples of five.

As a result of the proposed hike, ordinary Second Class suburban fares for a distance of 35 km will go up by Rs 2 from Rs 8 to Rs 10, while in the non-suburban trains it will go up by Rs 5 for an average distance of 135 km.

In Sleeper Class, the increase would mean a hike of Rs 50 for a distance of 770 km from Rs 270 to Rs 320. In the case of AC Chair Car, for a distance of 387 km, the increase would be Rs 40 from Rs 345 to Rs 385.

In the case of AC Three Tier, for a distance of 717 km, the fare will go up from Rs 724 to Rs 800, an increase of Rs 76.

Similarly, in the case of AC Two Tier, the increase would mean a hike of Rs 48 for a distance of 721 km, while for AC First Class it will be Rs 56 for a distance of 547 km.

Replying to questions, Bansal said the railway budget next month will not propose any fresh hike in passenger fares.

But when asked whether there would be hike in the freight tariff, he was non committal. "I am not saying anything either way. We are not saying anything now."

Giving reasons for the decision which he described as reasonable, the minister said the losses in passenger segment, which was Rs 1,059 crore in 2004-05, rose to Rs 19,964 crore in 2010-11, an increase of 18 per cent a year. This is likely to go up to Rs 25,000 crore in the current fiscal.

Bansal said input costs have increased immensely over the years and the fares had remained stagnant or there was a little decrease in the lower class fares.

He said railways was making efforts to raise revenues to meet urgent safety and user amenities requirements.

In addition, the Sixth Pay Commission meant an additional outgo of Rs 73,000 crore in the five year period and about one lakh crore till this time.

Bansal also said the freight traffic target could also not be met with the load showing a shortfall of 13 million tonne till December end.

He cross subsidy through freight business was no more viable in view of the fast evolving competition from other modes.

The across-the-board fare hike proposal of Dwivedi in the current year's budget was finally approved only for First Class, Second AC and First AC/ Executive Classes, which together constitute only about 0.3 per cent of total passengers and about 10 per cent of total earnings from passenger segment.

He said internal resource generation has been seriously impacted resulting in scaling down of Annual Plan size. Fund balances turned negative in 2011-12, adversely affecting essential replacement and renewal of assets, operation and maintenance activities and critical safety and passenger amenity works.

Rail fare hike unacceptable, unfortunate: Opposition

The BJP, Left parties and Trinamool Congress on Wednesday slammed the government for the hike in passenger rail fares and demanded its immediate rollback.

They termed the decision as "anti-people", saying it will further hit the common man already reeling under price rise and inflation.

The parties said instead of raising fares, Railways should have adopted other means to garner additional revenue.

The BJP said the decision to increase rail fares a few weeks ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament clearly exposes the "anti-democratic" face of the UPA government.

"The near 20 percent hike in fares has dealt a big blow to the common man who is already reeling under high inflation," he said, demanding a roll back of the hiked fares.

Terming the decision of rail fare hike as 'unjustified', the CPM politburo demanded a rollback for non-AC travel.

The party also hit out at railway minister Pawan Bansal for showing "contempt" for Parliament by announcing the fare hike "just a month before the Railway Budget is to be placed in Parliament."

The CPM politburo said the hike in the fares of second class, sleeper and suburban fares was "particularly unjustified as they will burden the ordinary people who are already suffering from all-round price rise."

Trinamool Congress, a former ally of the Congress-led UPA government which held the railway ministry before moving out of the alliance, also termed the hike as "anti-people" and "unfortunate" and said its announcement before the budget "bypassed" Parliament.

The Congress, however, endorsed the sudden decision to hike railway fare saying it was "inevitable".

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Pictures: Wildfires Scorch Australia Amid Record Heat

Photograph by Jo Giuliani, European Pressphoto Agency

Smoke from a wildfire mushrooms over a beach in Forcett, Tasmania, on January 4. (See more wildfire pictures.)

Wildfires have engulfed southeastern Australia, including the island state of Tasmania, in recent days, fueled by dry conditions and temperatures as high as 113ºF (45ºC), the Associated Press reported. (Read "Australia's Dry Run" inNational Geographic magazine.)

No deaths have been reported, though a hundred people are unaccounted for in the town of Dunalley, where the blazes destroyed 90 homes.

"You don't get conditions worse than this," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told the AP.

"We are at the catastrophic level, and clearly in those areas leaving early is your safest option."

Published January 8, 2013

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Hospitals Flooded With Flu Patients

U.S. emergency rooms have been overwhelmed with flu patients, turning away some of them and others with non-life-threatening conditions for lack of space.

Forty-one states are battling widespread influenza outbreaks, including Illinois, where six people -- all older than 50 -- have died, according to the state's Department of Public Health.

At least 18 children in the country have died during this flu season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The proportion of people seeing their doctor for flu-like symptoms jumped to 5.6 percent from 2.8 percent in the past month, according to the CDC.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago reported a 20 percent increase in flu patients every day. Northwestern Memorial was one of eight hospitals on bypass Monday and Tuesday, meaning it asked ambulances to take patients elsewhere if they could do so safely.

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Most of the hospitals have resumed normal operations, but could return to the bypass status if the influx of patients becomes too great.

"Northwestern Memorial Hospital is an extraordinarily busy hospital, and oftentimes during our busier months, in the summer, we will sometimes have to go on bypass," Northwestern Memorial's Dr. David Zich said. "We don't like it, the community doesn't like it, but sometimes it is necessary."

A tent outside Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township, Pa., was set up to tend to the overflowing number of flu cases.

A hospital in Ohio is requiring patients with the flu to wear masks to protect those who are not infected.

State health officials in Indiana have reported seven deaths. Five of the deaths occurred in people older than 65 and two younger than 18. The state will release another report later today.

Doctors are especially concerned about the elderly and children, where the flu can be deadly.

"Our office in the last two weeks has exploded with children," Dr. Gayle Smith, a pediatrician in Richmond, Va., said

It is the earliest flu season in a decade and, ABC News Chief Medical Editor Dr. Besser says, it's not too late to protect yourself from the outbreak.

"You have to think about an anti-viral, especially if you're elderly, a young child, a pregnant woman," Besser said.

"They're the people that are going to die from this. Tens of thousands of people die in a bad flu season. We're not taking it serious enough."

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